Spirit And Oxygen: The Children Of The Sun
by BrightLotusMoon
Summary: It's been a year since the deaths of Splinter and Shredder, and the turtles' lives have changed completely. Mikey is the catalyst for multiple growing relationships, circumstances, and adventures, and the family wouldn't have it any other way. Part of the "Mikey The Lifegiver" series.


Author's Note  
Stuff that is my heacanon here:

1) Shinigami is in a polyamorous relationship with Karai and Michelangelo, and the girls have their own bedroom in the lair. Karai and Leo still circle each other. 2) Raph has taken a shine to Shini and her attitudes on life and is so proud his little brother has such an awesome loveperson who is also banging his awesome sister. 3) April has finally decided to try dating both Donnie and Casey, although she's spent more time with Don, and Casey doesn't mind. 4) Splinter and Shredder are dead. Shredder's henchmen have teamed up with Purple Dragons and other gangs, and have recreated robot Foot ninjas. Splinter appears as a spirit to the Hamato family. 5) The Mighty Mutanimals are very involved in the turtles' lives. Mondo has learned first aid from Dr Rockwell and engineering from Don. 6) Leo and Karai have been duel sensei-ing and still argue over who gets to be Actual Sensei. 7) Abandoned military bases are turned into hide-outs for the more vicious, feral, and angry mutants in every borough. Mikey, Mondo, and Shini like to try and find them to befriend the tamer, friendlier ones. Karai and Raph wind up getting angry out of love and fear. 8) Mikey is Donnie's assistant in the lab and is a field medic who uses his emotional reach to comfort the injured.

* * *

Just say the word, we'll take on the world  
Just say you're hurt, we'll face the worst  
Oh

I can see, see the pain in your eyes  
Oh, believe, believe me and I have tried  
No, I won't, I won't pretend to know what you've been through  
You should know, I wish it was me, not you

And just say the word, we'll take on the world  
Just say you're hurt, we'll face the worst  
Nobody knows you the way that I know you  
Look in my eyes. I will never desert you.  
And just say the word, we'll take on the world

And it's the fight, and the fight of our lives  
You and I—we were made to thrive  
And I am your future, I am your past  
Never forget we were built to last  
Step out of the shadows and into my life  
Silence the voices that haunt you inside

And just say the word, we'll take on the world  
Just say you're hurt, we'll face the worst  
Nobody knows you the way that I know you  
Look in my eyes, I will never desert you.  
And just say the word, we'll take on the world, we'll take on the world

And nobody knows you the way that I know you  
And nobody knows you the way that I know you  
We'll fight, we'll crawl into the night  
Our world. We'll go with you by my side  
The calm, the storm, we'll face it all

And just say the word, we'll take on the world  
And nobody knows you the way that I know you  
Look in my eyes, I will never desert you.  
And just say the word, we'll take on the world, we'll take on the world

-You And Me At Six, "Take On The World"

* * *

Part One

Donnie's dreaming hard again, and he cherishes it. Usually his dreams are soft and quick, minnows in a stream, full of chrome and rust and the scent of oil, and there are tiny _things_ in his hands, beeping and whirring, and there are giant things in front of him, clicking and rumbling; and the scars all over his hands reminds him that these are _his_ , he made them, and they make sounds at him as though they are praising him.

Almost a year ago, shortly after Splinter died and Shredder died and Karai with Shinigami moved in, things began happening that challenged every science imaginable, but Donnie learned to be completely fine with it. Aside from Leo and Karai in a constant subtle battle over who would be actual sensei, Raph mellowed out and Mikey stopped pranking so much. Donnie was the only one who recognized Mikey as the catalyst: after enduring a series of traumas that they wouldn't wish on their enemies, Mikey had become quieter, softer. His odd hyperfocusing moments turned on books without pictures and science documentaries and Donnie spent three weeks spying on him; it was no surprise when Mikey caught him each time, because Mikey had changed the most. Donnie and April ran every single test, and Mikey endured them with a strange fidgeting patience, but Rockwell in the end explained that Mikey's Dimension X brain had finally caught up with him. He was almost like April. Don stopped being surprised when a beaker full of An Unusual Chemical dropped from his hands and floated back up to the table, despite it only being him and Mikey. Mikey, who folded his arms and grinned cheekily, and that was the day Donnie went to the closet and handed him a lab coat with his name on it.

Between their rotating autistic traits and interests, Donnie with engineering and physical science and Mikey with social sciences and cultural studies, they managed to create Things that made the lair easier to live in. With Mikey around, it was easier to navigate the entire city and study humans' patterns, so certain stores, warehouses, junkyards, and clinics would stay their "borrowing" targets. With Donnie around, they had vehicles and cloaking devices to move further and deeper in.

So Donnie dreams heavily, about jumping from roof to roof in Staten Island, looking for that one military facility that up until now always had staff. Mikey is right behind him, ready with both kusarigama and grappling hook. Donnie stops and signals, and Mikey presses right against his carapace, wrapping one arm around his waist, extending the other to aim the grappling gun. Don signals again, and Mikey pushes off and practically flies – scratch that, he _literally glides_ – and Donnie feels perfectly utterly safe as he casually throws an arm around his little brother's shoulders. Telekinesis. Mikey wouldn't let them drop; they'd only hover. That's how good he's gotten. The grappling hook keeps catching on roof edges and Mikey lets it hover and glide to the next and the next, and they keep going.

They're on the roof of the facility, over a mile from where they started, and Donnie pries open the secret door and they move in, and their flashlights roam. They remove their backpacks when he finds the correct room, and collect the items he's already listed on his T-Phone. It's silent, it's swift, and the only thing that warns him is Mikey's hiss and his voice in Donnie's head: _Donnie, get DOWN—_

And Donnie flattens himself on the floor and the _creature_ grazes him with a long metal toe as it leaps over him, and his right shoulder and bicep both rip open wide and his body spills blood rapidly. But it's not the pain that makes him scream. It's the strangled screeching gasp, full of pure agony and horror, that Mikey makes from somewhere behind him. No living creature should be making a sound like that unless it's about to die...

There is precious seconds of heavy silence, and he hears Mikey make that familiar, inhuman growl that all the turtles make when enraged, when their human sides shrink and their literal reptilian brains take over with crushing power. The _creature_ howls in pain and shock, and Mikey lets out a roar that contains Donnie's name scrawled into it, and then there is crashing, there is stabbing, punching, shrieking, snarling, bones cracking and flesh squelching and liquid spurting and other noises that Donnie will hear in his post-traumatic nightmares. Donnie crawls forward, collapses on his back, turns around and forces himself to stand.

The creature has Mikey pinned to the ground, and shadowed blood is pooling everywhere. And then Mikey kicks and flips the creature over with a furious shriek, and through the darkness Donnie sees his teeth flash in a savage grin, _you do not want to see that kind of smile on Mikey's face,_ and Donnie sees him coated in shadows, launching again at the creature, smacking his nunchaku again and again…and then the creature stops moving, stops making noise; and Donnie hears his own harsh, pained breathing, and his brother's harsh, pained breathing, and he manages to call out, "Mikey, are you okay?"

There's a pause. "I'm always okay, Dee," comes a breezy reply, but it is thin and strained. "Hey, Dee, what's hurt on you?"

"My right shoulder and upper arm, but I can patch it up. You?"

A longer pause, much much longer.

"Can I take a raincheck on answering that?"

Donnie feels his gut turn to ice. "Mikey?"

He sees the dark figure of his brother hold up a finger. "Just…gimme…a sec."

Within that second, Mikey falls to his knees. Donnie feels himself lurch forward. His eyes strain. The shadows on his brother are not shadows. They are too _shiny._ He's covered in it.

 _No. No. Please, no, not again, I can't handle this again._

It's not the blood loss making Donnie feel so dizzy. He struggles to move, and watches, in slow motion, as Mikey falls over completely, smacking the floor, and it is a wet smack, and liquid is still pooling around him. And Don starts to hyperventilate, because he's not sure where the light switch might be in this room and where the first aid kits are, and suddenly the darkness is too dark and the floor opens up and he is being swallowed, and he cannot reach Mikey, and then he falls, and as he falls his T-Phone rings, and something presses its emergency button, and it's blaring in his ears, louder and louder, calling Mikey's name.

Donatello bolts up screaming, and it is too dark and he can't _see._ A door crashes open. A body launches at him, and before he can take another breath, a pair of arms are wrapped around him and a plastron is pressed against his, and his chin is on a broad muscley shoulder, and the scent he breathes in is pure Raphael.

"Raph," he squeaks out. "Hey-"

"Sshhh, Donnie, easy," the hoarse voice murmurs. "It was a dream. You're okay."

He finds himself awkwardly patting his older brother's upper carapace, trying to politely pull away. "Raph…Raph, I realize that…can I breathe? Please?"

Raph pulls away, green eyes serpentine in the darkness of his bedroom. The way his head tilts, too.

"I'm fine, Raph. I promise. I know it's a nightmare."

Those eyes and that head tilt remain fixed on him.

"Donnie, this is your fourth nightmare. Do you realize that?"

 _Really?_

"Um. No?" He's been so busy between his lab and the sectioned-off infirmary that Rockwell and Slash and Casey helped build that he sometimes doesn't remember going to bed.

"Well, it is. And I'll bet it's the exact same one. Yours are weird." Raph sits back, _agura_ style, and Donnie draws his knees up to make room. "They're like clockwork. Once a week. And, y'know, this is the fourth week since-"

"I _know._ And you guys dragged me to my own bed when you knew I wouldn't stay here."

"You did this time," Raph points out.

"True. Wait, I did?"

"Congratulations on a full twelve hours of sleep, bro. It's ten in the morning."

Donnie feels his eyes grow wide. He throws the covers off and jumps off his bed. "I'm missing work, I-"

Raph's strong hand slaps against his chest. "Remember what we all agreed on? Until your shoulder and arm is fully functional, you don't do anything complex without someone helping you. I hope you were planning on asking someone."

Donnie narrows his eyes. "Do you know how to handle the complex alien chemicals I need to work on? Plus the newer components of the retromutagen?"

"If not me, you have April. Or Rockwell. Or Shini."

Donnie sighs, looks at his immobilized shoulder, and sighs again.

"You're a stubborn bastard, Hamato Donatello."

"You're worse."

"I am a paragon of complacency, little brother."

And Donnie winces. "Try not to call me that?"

"Oh. Right. I forgot. You're right. Sorry, Don."

Donnie sighs and gets dressed.

"Um." Raph rubs the back of his head. "So, nothing's changed this morning. That's…like, good, right? Kinda?"

"Kinda," Donnie says. "It means that Mikey is continuing to heal. Which is the best we can hope for in this situation."

As he heads out of his room and toward the lab doors, Raph catches up. "You should eat something first."

"I need to check his vitals and change his IV bags."

"Karai did that."

"Even the GI tube?"

"Yeah, that one too."

Donnie pauses. "I just need to see…"

"Donnie." Raph is impossibly firm, and very soft. "Donnie, everything you could do has been done. We've watched you and learned from you for a whole month. It's a routine. And part of the routine is that those of us who aren't doing the routine help ourselves first. It's your turn." He wraps him in a hug and kisses his cheek. Donnie just sighs and tries to relax.

Donnie is very silent as Raph steers him toward the kitchen. Leo is finishing up a plate of eggs, toast, and tea. Shinigami is making two more plates.

"Oh, you got him up! Good morning, Donatello. Did your nightmare complete itself?" The witch's smile is knowing and polite, and he has gotten used to her specific brand of sass. She is, after all his little brother's girlfriend and his sister's girlfriend.

He mumbles "yes" because shrugging his shoulders still hurts. He eats mechanically, even as he is poked at to make conversation. Raph has started giving him daily protein shakes. There is one next to his plate. He drinks it and crushes the bottle in his right hand, casually proving how fine he is. Sometimes the others forget how _strong_ he is. He can still move his hand and forearm around, of course.

He misses having Mikey around to defend him.

"I'll be in the infirmary," Shinigami says, and Donnie startles. When he looks at her, he sees dark, deep circles under her eyes. Her fair complexion is blotchy and even paler than usual. And he wants to slap himself. _She loves him. She has so much love, she loves Mikey and Karai so much. And Karai, to see her baby brother like this._ Abruptly, he stands up, wraps his good arm around Shini, and grips her like one of Mikey's famous octopus hugs.

She simply buries her face in his neck and holds him tight.

* * *

Donnie is at his computer. As he's reading and copying notes, he can't help but hear her from the infirmary corner, and after a while he gives up trying to ignore it. He stretches his neck to catch a glimpse.

Shinigami has been sitting by Mikey's bedside for fifteen minutes, and she only started speaking a couple of minutes ago. Don sees her hand tighten around Mikey's as she talks.

"…keeps insisting nothing hurts, of course, but I refuse to believe her. Even when she shifted back and forth to her snake form, I could tell her arm was giving her trouble. Even the snake looked sad!" A small laugh, humorless. "Oh, sweet Mikey, you should see the looks she gives me when I point out her pain. She thinks I don't see it. I see everything about her." A pause. "I see everything about you too, you know. I see the subtle shifts in your facial muscles when you slip one of your behavior masks on. You know what I mean. When you fake smile, or your laugh is not real? I see it. You should not ever be sad, my Mikey. I told Karai I would do anything to protect her. Now that promise extends to you. Therefore, you must recover from this. You must hold me again so I can tell you I love you. You must hold me tightly, like an octopus, and laugh into my hair, and spin me around, and talk about your comics and your television shows. Tell me about Hamato Yoshi and how he adored you. Tell me about your brothers and your adoration of each of them, how they are your heroes. You and Donatello are very close. I know you wish to have so much knowledge and skill the way does."

Donnie bites his lip and blushes a little. He almost feels like a sensei, in a way, the way Mikey looks at him while he works or while he is showing Mikey a project. He pictures the last lesson they'd had. April was there. She and Mikey were side by side, chins in their hands, looking at him lovingly, freckled faces and blue eyes alight, looking like mischievous twins.

He wants Mikey to wake up and look like that again.

He doesn't know when Mikey will wake up. That hurts him most of all. This coma is different, deep and frightening. Mikey lost a lot of blood, and the mutant hit him in the neck, and Donnie knows how bad that can be. Concussion. Oxygen loss. Brain function compromised. Brain damage. Mikey already has enough. Donnie is worried.

Shini's voice startles him.

"We miss you, Michelangelo. I miss you. I…need you. You must come back soon. Please." And Donnie watches as Shinigami leans forward and presses her lips to Mikey's cheek, next to the oxygen mask, and smiles. She squeezes his limp, broken hand again. She stands up and begins to walk toward the door, then changes course, coming toward the lab. Donnie blinks at her.

She smiles at him. "What you working on?"

"Oh, um…" he glances down. "Taking notes on neurobiological function in humans and reptiles. I believe our brains are almost fully human, but we probably have neuronal and hormonal responses similar to diamondback turtles, too."

"Mikey will sometimes make little noises," Shini offers. "They're not human."

Donnie nods. "Yes. Chirping. Cooing. Growling. A kind of purring growl, like churring. Hissing."

He shifted through the pages, wrote down some more notes.

"You aren't going to do that all day, are you?"

Donnie glances up. Shini has leaned her hip against the table and is smirking. "Leo wants everyone in the dojo for training. Is this very important?"

He bites his lip, looks at his screen. "I guess it can wait until later." He saves the file. Shinigami takes him by the elbow and steers him out of the lab. Interestingly, Raph is waiting there, arms crossed. He smirks and nods. "Good. Good Donnie." Shinigami giggles, as if the two had planned it.

"How's Mikey?" Raph asks, automatically.

Shini just shrugs. "The same. Karai wonders if I can use my witchcraft to find him in the astral plane. It is a thought."

Raph raises an eyeridge. "Damn straight, it's a thought. He's been healing pretty well. Maybe it's time to try reaching out to him instead of waiting for him to wake up."

Donatello sits up straight and snaps his fingers. "It can be a family effort!"

That seems to light a fire in Raphael, and he joyfully reaches out to fistbump Shinigami, who has a wide smirk on her face and a glint in her eye. Donnie feels stronger and happier than he's felt in weeks.

* * *

Part Two

Karai is helping Shini with the sponge bath, and for the first time since both her fathers died, she finds she cannot speak to her best friend past the lump in her throat. Shinigami has deeply dark circles under her eyes. Karai knows she has not been sleeping well in the past four weeks. Some nights she'll wake to find herself alone in their bed, and she will go out into the hallway, her feet sliding like snake scales, and something will tell her to go to Michelangelo's empty room. When she opens the door she'll find the nightlight on, and Shini curled up in the bed, under the covers, face buried in the pillows, breathing deeply. Karai doesn't feel jealousy, only desperate empathy. Her sense of smell has been extraordinary. She understands. Sometimes she'll leave it and Shini will be back with her in the morning. Sometimes, when Shini cries, Karai will go to her and pull her away, murmuring hopeless comforts like "Don't worry, he'll wake up soon, he'll be back here." And in their bed Shini will cry against her neck, and the black kitten will uncurl from the end of the bed to crawl onto their laps and purr a healing purr.

Karai gently hums as she drags the water-soaked sponge along her baby brother's feet and ankles, over the scars that healed more quickly. She is careful to avoid the plaster casting, which Donnie thinks they can remove soon. She glances up at her lover and bites her lip, because Shini has paused to take Mikey's face in both hands; she is staring at him. The sponge she was applying lies on his plastron, and water is pooling into the deeper, harsher scarred wounds from claw marks.

"Shini," Karai says very softly, and her best friend merely nods and resumes cleaning Mikey's upper torso. When they have dried him, they reapply the gels and ointments and they rewrap the bandages. For the splints on his fingers, all on his left hand, they use a waterless foam, and Shinigami's grip is a little tight and a little shaky.

Karai leans over and smooths her lover's hair out of her face. Donatello still can't really talk about exactly what happened when that mutant creature attacked them, he was too silent when they came in the Party Wagon, into which he carried Mikey without help, rushing to the lair as if time were too short. In the infirmary, Don was too quiet. He was too silent and he was too quick setting bones, cleaning wounds, terrible terrifying gaping wounds; and April found a silver shaving from a claw sticking out of the gash on Mikey's shoulder, which Donnie took and placed on a tray while murmuring about later analysis. They thought he was in shock, that he was offsetting his own hidden injuries by caring for a dying brother. But Karai and April looked him over and found small bruises and scrapes; all the blood was Mikey's. Raph gave blood, almost too much, and Leo carried him to bed and brought him juice. And all the while Shinigami stood there, lips parted in a silent cry, only moving when spoken to. When it was all done, she and Donnie stood on opposite sides of the infirmary bed, staring at a nearly mummified Michelangelo, tears rolling down their faces, and Donnie didn't say a word. It took him a whole day to tell them what happened. Karai knows he left things out.

But today is the day the family will gather to project into the astral plane to find Mikey's spirit and try to call him home. Shinigami and Donatello have been exhausted and desperate, Raphael even moodier and angrier, Leonardo too rigid and determined. He went with Karai on patrol runs and didn't smile, and his hands' grips in her hands were too stiff and tense.

Karai wanted to find the address of that abandoned military base but Donnie wasn't giving it. She thinks now that maybe she can coax it out, maybe later, once Mike is recovering.

Everyone is coming to the bed now, even Casey is there. He will be monitoring everything, since he can't go with them. April will be their anchor and Shinigami will take them in. Karai leans in and runs her lips across Shini's cheekbone, suddenly needing her. Shini's head turns and Karai crushes their lips together and she feels too much worry and too much love, like her heart could implode.

April waits, smiling, and then Shini reaches across the bed and takes her hand and says that she is ready. Everyone but Casey joins hands. Karai watches Shini's face while she murmurs a ritual under her breath, and her eyes begin to glow. Karai closes her eyes, feeling safe and loved, and April whispers, "Now!" and Karai feels herself falling, then lifting, then spinning, as her best friend and lover holds her spirit and pushes them up into the astral plane. Karai feels the spirits of Leo, Don, and Raph, and she begins to reach for them, and then there is a bright, nearby rush of golden light, and for an instant the entire world goes away.

* * *

Karai blinks a few times. She's standing at the bank of a laughing river and the sun is beating down on her shoulders. A low breeze rustles in front of her, and suddenly there are voices. She has to raise her arm against the sunlight; it feels almost unnaturally bright.

 _Wait…of course. This is his world._

Raph and Leo are standing with arms folded, looking down at something at the edge of the water. The something shifts and moves, and then Michelangelo stands, unfolding himself with a little skip and hop. He puts his hands on his hips and sticks out his tongue.

 _Otouto,_ she thinks, and smiles.

Raphael claps his hand onto Mikey's shoulder and snarls something. Mikey rolls his eyes melodramatically. Leo says something. Mikey stamps his foot.

Behind her comes Shinigami's giggle. Karai heaves an exaggerated sigh and marches herself down to the little huddle.

"Mikey-chan," she scolds.

He glances up with her, pupils huge, grinning as childishly as Karai's choice of suffix allows.

"Nee-chan?"

"Don't give me those eyes. You've been away from us for over a month." She puts her hands on her hips, trying to frown.

"But Karaaaii! It's pretty here!" He's waving his arms above his head, hopping from foot t foot, and her mouth keeps curving upwards.

April clears her throat from somewhere, and Karai turns around. The redhead is standing with arms folded, her hair loose around her shoulders, looking stern. "Come on, Mikey, I'm anchoring everybody here."

He sighs, _very_ loudly, and stomps toward them. Shinigami simply opens her arms and he huffs and leans into her.

"It's warm here," he mutters. "It doesn't hurt."

Karai bites her lip.

Donnie's hands are pressed on his shoulders. "C'mon, Mikey, you have to wake up. I'm worried about your vitals. You _know_ you can't stay in here."

He buries his face in Shini's shoulder. "I saw Dad. We talked."

Donnie winces. "Mikey…"

"Mikey, _please_ ," and it's that crack in Leonardo's voice that causes Mikey's head to jolt up, his eyes to widen even more his body to spin and his arms to fly outward, grabbing his oldest brother tightly before anyone realizes.

Shinigami and April look at each other, and April nods, and suddenly Karai has that unnerving sensation of being pulled backward, light filling her vision. It's so quick, and so simple, and then she's hearing Leo in her ears, his unsteady breathing. She opens her eyes.

Mikey is slightly upright, cradled in Leo's arms, and they're hugging like they might shatter if they pull away.

* * *

Part Three

"Mikey! What the hell are you doing?" But Donnie's frustration is less actual frustration and more simple _relief_ that it's nothing serious, as he grabs his falling brother around the waist and hoists him back onto the medical bed.

Mikey, for his part, just pouts. "I'm _bored_ , Dee. I want to go watch cartoons."

Sighing, Don works his jaw, rubbing his hands up and down Michelangelo's biceps. "Mikey, you woke up _three days ago._ You spent a month unconscious from multiple lacerations and fractures."

"Your point being?"

Donnie rolls his eyes toward the ceiling. "How do you feel?" he asks, with the patient, annoyed air of an overly attentive nurse.

"Um. My head hurts. I'm really dizzy?"

"Then you shouldn't be out of bed, should you."

"Can't I just lay on the couch?

" _No._ How many times have we been over this in the last year with your health? You know what I'm going to have to do now, right?"

Mikey scowls at the floor. "Fine, bring on the finger and the pushing and the me walking around and touching my nose and stuff. But you owe me pizza!"

"Touche," Don grins.

Mikey fails every test. Even as he tries, again, to slip off the bed, he slumps and groans in Donnie's gentle embrace, resting his forehead on Don's arm.

"Donnie, 'm bored."

"What you need to be is asleep, Mikey."

"But I'm awake. So what're we gonna do about that?"

"I could give you a sedative."

"But I don't _wanna._ "

Donnie can feel himself wearing thin. He actually wouldn't mind a nap himself, for once.

"I'm sorry, Donnie, I can't _help_ it. My brain, it's all…like…active." Mikey lifts his head and frowns and sighs. "That's not really the word I wanted."

"I understand your intention, Mikey," Donnie assures him. Mikey just shakes his head.

"No, I mean, I can _feel_ that you're tired and _you_ want to sleep and that I _should_ sleep and I just…it's like I'm too wired, but I can't move, and…you know?"

"I do know." Donnie tilts his head. "I could set up my laptop for you in bed, you could watch movies."

"You'd do that?"

"Of course! Silly. Let's get ready and I'll set you up. You should wash up, first. Come on." And he brings the wheelchair closer, the one Slash picked up from another abandoned medical facility, the one Donnie and Casey kept tinkering with. He sest Mikey into it and wheels him to the bathroom, helps him shower. As they are heading back to the lab, April and Shinigami step into their path.

"Hey, girls, what's up?" Mikey waves shakily.

"We were about to go shopping," April say. "How is everything?"

"Mikey woke up bored," Donnie explains, "so I'm going to set up my laptop like a table tray on the bed, he can watch stuff and play his games."

"That sounds fun. Be good!" and Shinigami bends to kiss Mikey's forehead. "When I come back maybe we can watch that vampire movie together."

Mikey's face lights up.

In the infirmary, Donnie sets Mikey back up on the IVs and makes him comfortable, propping him up on pillows, tucking under his arm the brand new plush panda that Casey and Mondo got last week. He is sure to stabilize the tray on Mikey's lap before setting the computer there, and makes sure to bring drinks and easily digestible snacks.

"Okay, you remember how to work everything," he says, bringing up the applications and folders.

Mikey scoffs and nods, but his shaky hands hesitate just for a second and Donnie flinches at that barest hint of cognitive complications. He keeps smiling, though, and quietly adds the muscle relaxant to the IV.

"I'm going to go to my room and take a nap," he says, feeling how odd the words are in his mouth. "Leo's in the dojo, I'll tell him to listen for you, so yell if you need anything."

Mikey just nods at him. "Got it. Go sleep, Donnie. Really sleep, okay? I'll know if you don't."

If they had hair, Donnie would have ruffled Mikey's. He just rubs his scalp, grinning at the way Mikey's eyes close in reflex, the way his head presses into the touch. "Enjoy, little brother. I'll be back in a few hours."

* * *

Part Four

Donnie hasn't stopped having nightmares. But Mikey's psychic reach is strong, and Donnie is able to wake without crying out. Mikey tosses and twists himself in the sickbed sheets, crying quietly, and Donnie knows exactly when those nightmares have happened because Mikey doesn't even try to hide the dark circles under his eyes, the shaking in his limbs.

Shinigami is instrumental in soothing Mikey's fears. She reminds him to take medicine when he is in pain but stubborn. She holds him as his dreams shred his flesh. The spells she performs help, sometimes more than whatever Rockwell and Donatello prescribe. Mikey is frequently cuddling her black cat when he isn't chatting with Ice Cream Kitty in a soft, sad voice.

No one but Karai really asked about Shinigami's brand of witchcraft unless she offered. She became much more open after including Michelangelo in her heart beside Karai. She was the only one Mikey really opened up to about what happened with that mutant creature. When she told everyone else what he'd said, leaving out Mikey's personal details, plans were made. Donnie shivered a few times, pushing the heels of his hands into his eyes, but his expression turned stone-like by the end.

It's two weeks later, and Mikey is healed very well, sleeping in his own room curled up kitten-like against the wall. The rest of the group, except for Don and Shini, are heading out to the military complex with Donnie communicating into their headsets. He shoved a backpack filled with varied first aid kits into April's hands.

Their search across the base turns up nothing at all. Donnie's string of curse words is melodically trickled into their ears all at once.

"Turn back," he mutters. "Come on home."

And then Casey is the one who sees it who freezes and points shakily.

The corpse of the mutant creature who had attacked their brothers is sprawled in a corner of the yard, ripped open from throat to belly.

"Yeah," Raph murmurs. "Yeah, we're comin' home. Go go go go, fuckin' GO already."

And they run, they collide in the Party Wagon's doors, they drive so fast there are flames left behind, and not even April notices the yellow eyes watching from a window.

* * *

Shini has climbed into bed naked next to Mikey, digging her fingertips into his shoulders. Her deep massage wakes him and he turns to her, arms open, eyes bright, a purring hum in his throat and his mouth against her neck. She pulls him on top, sensing all the new scars with her fingers, strong hands moving carefully between his thighs, reaching up and capturing his mouth with hers, _need this need you healing loving caring_ , and they press together and slide silkily against each other, and he grips her curving muscled shape in steel arms, hands and fingers gliding and massaging and grasping and pulling deep sweet sounds from her like moonlight and star shine over and over and over until climax. The fullness of her orgasm crests over him and he comes powerfully, wrapping his whole mind around her mind. In the afterglow, an image of dead and dying mutants flashes across his thoughts and she helps push them aside, holds him tighter, and pushes him into sleep as Karai comes to check on them, deciding not to wake them with the most recent news about violent mutants killing each other across the city.

* * *

Casey patrols alone every so often, earning sharp words from April, who can't keep waiting up for both him and Donnie. He comes to the lair with new bruises, scratches on his face and hands that look like claw marks. Donnie's mouth twists in disappointment when he patches Casey up, and Raph rolls his eyes, punching him in both shoulders, hoping at least one is already strained. Casey admits he deserves it, but he's started having nightmares, all the way back to before Splinter died, to the night they nearly lost Chompy when Tokka arrived, the night he and Mikey got captured and the others didn't know, the night Mikey almost got _vivisected_ in front of a captive Casey, and Casey's nightmares are slick with Mikey's blood now, Mikey lying on that table opened and exposed and gasping for air while his insides are prodded and gloved human hands swim in blood and Casey is screaming and cannot stop screaming.

Raph's shoulder punches become hugs, then, Donnie's examinations are more thorough, April's kisses are deeper. Casey shares his dreams with Mikey, who simply nods and shivers and remembers with him. Karai pulls them all into the dojo for a group meditation, and very belated, unnecessary apologies spill out from the brothers, for leaving Mikey and Casey behind, for not realizing they might get caught, for the possibility of literally their collective worst fear coming true. Mikey starts to insist that everything is _fine_ , that he only had nightmares of his capture for _just a few months_ before Raph, with Chompy on the floor beside him, flings himself at his little brother, hugging him too tight to breathe right, gasping that it wouldn't have been worth it, had they known, that they would have turned around, after Chompy was with Tokka…and Mikey coughs and growls playfully and says it doesn't _matter_ , it _happened,_ everyone's _okay now_ and they should focus on what they _have._ And Leo is next to grab him in a hug, rocking him into his lab, what a selfish jerk he was, a terrible leader, a poor excuse for a big brother, and Mikey again pushing at him, staring at Donnie, waiting for Donnie to say something.

But Donnie knows better, Donnie had already seen the bruises and telling marks from the capture and kept it to himself, and Donnie just nods and says that if Mikey had wanted to keep up that sunny exterior that had been his prerogative, and Mikey and Casey just look at him in pure relief. Donnie remembers his near-vivisection at the hands of the mob boss, Vizioso, and Donnie holds that icy rage and keeps it tight to him, curled at his side like a slumbering snake. But his hugs with Mikey are a little longer, his eyes a little kinder, and the cold anger waits beside colder logic.

Casey still goes out alone but he makes sure to keep his T-Phone on, and Raph and Slash are prepared to shadow if he needs it. Sometimes April goes with him, and they both come home smelling of the night and shadows and dirt, and Donnie kisses April like he's drowning every time, and Casey just grins widely and jokes about whose bed April sleeps in the rest of the night. Sometimes they flip a coin. Sometimes April manipulates it.

* * *

Part Five

Months after Mikey and Donnie first encountered the creature that nearly killed them, there is no more news of any others. April and Karai's sources are unable to turn up any evidence that any more abnormal mutant creatures are loose anywhere within or around any of the five boroughs. Even Michelangelo's hours-long meditative clairvoyant sweep comes up with nothing. He senses, however, several shadowy human minds in the distance, unnatural yellow eyes gleaming from windows of darkened buildings here and there, and he warns them, telepath to telepath, to stay where they are, to not seek out his family, lest they want their frontal lobes ripped out and their brainstems irrevocably damaged. His darker, playful laugh becomes a signature, and slowly, over time, the minds and the eyes and the voices fade and fade until they are nothing but small shadows in corners. Mikey rubs his hands over the new scars all over his limbs and the groves in his plastron, and the strange alien powers in the back of his mind spring forward on sinewy legs, chittering in the language of dimensions beyond and the language of mutation and the language of the universe itself. He has begun to learn those languages. It comes in handy whenever they encounter anything mutated, and especially spirits. Michelangelo has become the team's most powerful spiritual force, replacing their Sensei, and he is completely okay with that. He goes to Leo for extra training when he veers off course and he goes to Raph for advice on channeling strong emotion. Don and Rockwell continue to monitor his health, and fret, no matter how much he rolls his eyes.

* * *

The migraines happen every time Mikey has a powerful vision, no matter the timeline, no matter the circumstance. Shinigami and April must help him dull the pain long enough to last through a mission, but the sickness later leaves him huddled under blankets in the dark for days, weakly accepting injections from his doctors. Leatherhead comes and curls around him, thrumming deep in his chest, and the vibrations soothe the tension, the spasticity, the constricting blood vessels, the stabbing facial agony. The adoring alligator gently sponges him down with cold water, feeds him electrolye drinks, carries him to the bathroom, hums at his nightmares when he manages to sleep. Every now and then, the telekinesis breaks free and lashes out around the lair, reflecting the whirling pain inside. Between April, Shinigami, and Rockwell, force fields keep their home intact. It's not Mikey's fault. They never fault him.

Mikey's pranks, at the essence of what he is, are light and cheery, keeping the ninjas on their toes, keeping their senses sharp. Splinter taught them to keep their weapons close even in sleep, to become stone at an intruding sound. Mikey is the pure, kind godfather of small pranks. Leo and Karai discuss unleashing him on the Foot every so often.

Raphael and Chompy and Ice Cream Kitty have anger management therapy together, and eventually include Donnie, after he began to have outbursts and the iciness shattered. Ice Cream Kitty's mews, translated by Mikey and April, proved to be of a bizarre wisdom. Shinigami's little black kitten has things to add, curled up against Donnie's shoulder and shell. Casey is gradually convinced to join, slowly slowly opening up about his personal abusive trauma that Raph has guessed at after Mikey's rape.

That night, April invites Casey into Donnie's bed with her for the first time, and they erases as much trauma from each other as they can.

Shinigami and Michelangelo begin to play with tantric sex, which produces fascinating psychological and emotional results. It boosts Mikey's abilities in a very new way: He finds himself able to reach out across space, across galaxies, to communicate with beings he has met before – for example, the Salamandrians. With April's help, Mikey creates a spiritual psychic plane to connect Raphael and Mona Lisa. They are thrilled, they connect in every way.

Casey comments that everything suddenly feels like a set-up at a high school prom. Which makes Leo and Karai glance at each other and blush. Shini notices and smirks. Eventually, Leo stammers as he invites Karai into his room, on the night Shinigami goes to Mikey's room with a proud smirk. The next morning, Karai stumbles out of Leonardo's room, clutching his hand, hair mussed, and Shini joins Mikey in the expected teasing. Raphael laughs heartily, a satisfied grin stretching his face. Don simply rests his cheek in his hand and smiles. It's all right.

They are still teenagers, after all.

They still have the universe to explore.

* * *

Let it go  
Let it roll right off your shoulder  
Don't you know  
The hardest part is over?  
Let it in  
Let your clarity define you  
In the end  
We will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made  
In these small hours  
These little wonders  
These twists and turns of fate  
Time falls away  
But these small hours  
These small hours still remain

Let it slide  
Let your troubles fall behind you  
Let it shine  
Until you feel it all around you  
And I don't mind  
If it's me you need to turn to  
We'll get by  
It's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made  
In these small hours  
These little wonders  
These twists and turns of fate  
Time falls away  
But these small hours  
These small hours still remain

All of my regret  
Will wash away some how  
But I can not forget  
The way I feel right now

In these small hours  
These little wonders  
These twists and turns of fate  
These twists and turns of fate  
Time falls away, but these small hours  
These small hours, still remain  
They still remain  
These little wonders  
These twists and turns of fate  
Time falls away  
But these small hours  
These little wonders still remain

-Rob Thomas, "Little Wonders"


End file.
